The ability to reason scientifically and communicate research appropriately is central to psychological literacy. Scientific research has little value unless scientists are able to convey results and their consequences clearly to others. In this study, we outline a method of assessing the development of psychological literacy in undergraduate…

This paper presents a framework that institutions of higher education can use to improve, revise and introduce comprehensive systems for the collection and dissemination of information on student learning outcomes. For faculty and institutional leaders grappling with the many issues and nuances inherent in assessing student learning, the framework…

Some theoretical concerns for competency-based evaluation instruments are discussed, and means of examining these instruments for validity and reliability are presented. The areas of concern include descriptions of the behavior, the level of response, and the nature of the evaluation. Two different types of instruments are examined to determine…

The Benton Visual Retention Test which is designed to assess visual perceptual, visual motor, and visuoconstructive abilities can give school personnel greater precision and range in testing. The standardization of this instrument was tested on 700 Houston elementary school students. Chronological age differences were maintained and correlation…

The purpose of the present study was to extend the construct validity of a scale designed to measure attitude toward technology. A revision of the Mechanization Scale (Goldman, Platt & Kaplan, 1972) was administered to 89 undergraduate students with instructions to respond as if each were a member of a specified occupational group. The target…

The Annehurst Curriculum Classification System (ACCS), a tool for matching individual learners with appropriate curriculum materials, was used with a group of fifty-nine students (Air National Guard officer candidates) and their four instructor-advisors to examine two issues: (1) the applicability of the ACCS in a highly structured,…

Eight different methods are reviewed for determining whether two or more tests are equivalent measures. These methods vary in restrictiveness from the Wilks-Votaw test of compound symmetry (which requires that all means, variances, and covariances are equal), to Joreskog's theory of congeneric tests (which requires only that the tests are measures…

After taking a personality test, subjects reported their reactions to being tested. Reactions were diverse, even in the same subject. Free responses to 10 questions were coded into 16 categories within five broad groups. Desire for information about the test and about self, and criticism of testing were very prevalent; criticisms of self and…

Six approaches to assessing test item bias were examined: transformed item difficulty, point biserial correlations, chi-square, factor analysis, one parameter item characteristic curve, and three parameter item characteristic curve. Data sets for analysis were generated by a Monte Carlo technique based on the three parameter model; thus, four…

This paper examines issues in designing post-school follow-up studies in special education. The examination focuses on survey research techniques, which are widely used in the investigation of post-school adjustment of former students with handicaps. In special education, survey research studies are used commonly to address many important…

The report of the National Academy of Education (NAE), "Setting Performance Standards for Student Achievement," provides an interpretation of NAE investigations into the procedures surrounding establishment of achievement levels for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The NAE report synthesizes the investigations of…

Four systems for scoring student essays were used to classify eleventh grade and undergraduate students according to writing ability. The reliabilities of the raters and the validities of the systems in classifying students were emphasized. Two analytic scoring systems--which assume that quality writing is characterized by the inclusion of certain…

The National Academy of Education (NAE) Panel has drawn two major conclusions in its evaluation of the National Assessment Governing Board's (NAGB) efforts to set achievement levels for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). They are that the Angoff procedure is fundamentally flawed for the setting of achievement levels, and that…

The ninth report of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program contains the technical information needed to evaluate the instruments and techniques used to measure and report the status of student achievement and attitude. This report is intended for people with expertise in psychometrics. The Program is described in the first section of the…

This partially annotated bibliography of journal articles, dissertations, convention papers, research reports, and a few books and unpublished manuscripts provides a comprehensive coverage of work on latent trait theory and practice. Documents are arranged alphabetically by author. The period covered ranges from the early 1950's to the present.…